Kids and Posting

Colin and Anna went home yesterday as did Emily.  I have so much material because we were pretty busy while all the company was here.  Tennis, movies, hiking, White Sands (terrific day!) shopping in the village, Peter Piper, drawing, cracking stones and, on the last full day here, horse riding in Ruidoso.

Unfortunately I am not on line in Cloudcroft at the cabin.  I must come down to the Chamber of Commerce building where there is free WiFi. I do that almost every day and try to upload vids while here.  It takes 38 minutes for a 1.5 minute vid to download and I have 29 vids ready to upload so you can see the difficulty.

However I do have some stills to share.....

This one needs no explaining.

Colin playing in gypsum..

Anna in Ruidoso...

This is the bear Anna was sitting on and Colin climbed on it instead of sitting for a snap..

These bears are $100 each...

Lots of trinkets and collectible junk...

The more junk the better ...

Emily and Anna through the window..

So pretty..

Colin looking for trouble, again..

Here is a video from the first day they were here...

Colin at the net...

Here the kids are pulling weeds...




YouTube is not cooperating....I have spent too much time trying to embed some more vids that are already uploaded.  Can't seem to figure out how to get the embed code when I play the vids from my YouTube account. Oh well.  maybe Emily will clue me in.....Next Day.....She did!
So here are some more:




And finally, the end of weed/grass pulling.

Jay and Chipmunk and Thunder

We've seen two or three Jays in the trees by the dog run so I made a feeder from an ashtray and bought some seed.  The first eater we lured however was a chipmunk who is easily scared off but is patient and persistent.
Next was a jay. We ID'd it as a Steller's Jay. And it is very wary and flies at any noise or sighting of people.
The chipmunk is quite nervy around the bird and sneaks up only to be pecked or threatened away.

Here's a couple of vids.....

After I went back to the cabin and had lunch of smoked chicken and broccoli salad it clouded over and a thunderstorm hit the area.
Since a few people remarked about the earlier post on the storms....here, have at this one.

Mountain Greenery and Thunderstorms

We could see the results of the drought in the area and noticed a difference in the amount of green from last year.   There are fewer green fields and hillsides.  There are lots of trees that have died and many have fallen.  The camp grounds were closed until recently and while they have now opened up, campfires are not permitted.

Thus it was good to see a substantial thunderstorm last night with ample rain.  I was pleased to see comments on my post from yesterday so I took the time to download these two vids that I took last night.  They took 23 and 29 mins each while I am sitting on the hard bench on the front porch at the Cloudcroft C of C.

The Chamber doesn't open till 10 am and I got here at 0930.  About 5 mins later two ladies came across the parking area and I told them the office was closed and wouldn't be open till 10.

Oh, said one.  Are we headed in the right direction for The Lodge? We've been for a long walk and we don't really know the way back.  Is this it?
Yes I said but it's almost 2 miles and half of it uphill.   They both looked buggered and so I gallantly asked if they would like a ride.......on my bike.

Yes please they both said.....so, one by one I transported two ladies to The Lodge and they thanked me lots.  They took pictures and I'm sure it will be a tale told to many people.

Here's the vids of the storm....

Summer Residence 2011

After being spoiled by Steph and Al with daily treats and enjoying the kids and the Southern California weather we went back to Houston for 5 days.  It was enough!

We decided to make the 11 hr trip up to Cloudcroft in one shot.  Although we were shattered by the time we arrived, it was worth it ....765 miles in 11 hours.
Here's Patchie's reaction to the long journey.  She wanted he bed and bottle....

The cabin is quite nice and the weather is unbelievable.  We get up around 6.30 and it's 50F (10C) and at the heat of the day it gets only to 75F (22)

We have internet connectivity through Bev's I-Pad .....but for me to get online I go down the street to the Chamber of Commerce building - where I am now - and they have 24 hr WiFi free and a little bench with an electric outlet.  How bad is that?

The owner of this cabin that we rented must have a thing for barbecue.....he has 2 grills and 2 smokers.

I cleaned up the gas grill and we've already used that.  I also cleaned the top part of the electric smoker and I've read up on what woods to use for smoking various meats and fish.  So we'll be trying that in the near future.

Colin and Anna will be visiting in early August and we are really looking forward to that.  They bring new spirit to Cloudcroft and we adults are ready for bed every night they are here.  Between tennis, hikes, horseback riding and visiting the local attractions they wear you out.

Here are two videos of the place.....


The front porch view at 0700





and the rest of the house with the side porch and all the grills......

Neiman Marcus

What a day.

We went for breakfast to Claire's on Cedros.....downtown Solana Beach.  Fantastic.

Then we boarded the Amtrak to Irvine Calif. and got a cab to Neiman Marcos in Newport Beach.  The train ride was wonderful.  We shopped until I dropped and then had lunch at Mariposa in Neiman's .

Oh my! Crab cakes and halibut, salmon. turkey melts...and those big turnovers........

Steph and the children are staying overnight with friends and the two of us took a cab back to the station in   Irvine and rode the train back to Solana Beach.

For dinner we just had sliced salmon and a nice chardonnay.......The dogs are happy and we are too!

Evie wins Blue Ribbon

Evie was in a horse show today at Del Mar.  She was one of 4 four year olds.  She got a Blue Ribbon.

Here's a pic of the pre show activity and then a video of the walk around.

And finally .......here is the winner!

Pool Day

Bev was gone all afternoon for a meeting so I took the kids to the pool.  We got there at 1400 and I thought we'd be there about an hour.
Finally at 1630 they'd had enough.  They were in the water for 2+ hours without a break!